


Rules Were Made To Be Broken

by jakepurralta



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-29 05:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3884566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jakepurralta/pseuds/jakepurralta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I was impatiently waiting for fics after that wonderful 2x21 episode featuring Jake heart eyes emoji Peralta and oblivious Amy Santiago. I've reached the point where I've read every single Jake/Amy fic on this site, so I guess there was nothing else I could do besides simply writing something myself.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Rules Were Made To Be Broken

**Author's Note:**

> I was impatiently waiting for fics after that wonderful 2x21 episode featuring Jake heart eyes emoji Peralta and oblivious Amy Santiago. I've reached the point where I've read every single Jake/Amy fic on this site, so I guess there was nothing else I could do besides simply writing something myself.

Amy Santiago was in massive denial. She was even in denial of being in denial.

Everything has just been so confusing for her, that she opted not to deal with it at all. Given her history, that was incredibly unlike her. She liked facing her problems head on and dealing with them as soon as they presented themselves to her. But to her credit, dealing with Jake Peralta was something she had little experience with. More specifically, dealing with Jake Peralta having romantic feelings for her is something she had little experience with.

When she first met him, she was convinced she’d end up loathing the guy. He was all smile and cocky remarks about his accomplishments (that were actually not that impressive when compared to hers) and when he shook her hand, he made a weird, offhand remark about her looks, something about her resembling some sort of Disney princess? Basically, one of the first things her new partner had to say to her was about her looks? It didn’t sit well with her.

And because she was Amy Santiago, it didn’t take her long before she spent her nights at home, laptop on her lap, wine glass near her right hand, while she typed away on her keyboard, putting together a list containing all the reasons why she did not like working with Peralta. Every reason was of course nearly categorized under sections such as personal hygiene, professional behavior (or lack thereof) and many, many more.

During their first week as colleagues, Amy found it an excellent way to release some work stress that he had most definitely caused. He found many ways to push her buttons and test her patience, and the only way she knew how to deal with it was to formulate her frustrations into words in the comfort of her home. Captain McGinley was no help at all, and even that one time she almost got him to care, Peralta made a comment about how she’d be voted ‘Most Likely To Be A Huge Killjoy’ in high school. Those were just his words, but they did hurt. Maybe because it wasn’t too far from the truth.

As the weeks passed and turned into months, her rambling sessions in Word were a little less long and the way she typed on her keyboard a little less aggressive. She wasn’t quite ready to admit it out loud, but maybe he wasn’t so bad.

They had just wrapped up a case together. It was a particularly difficult one. The victims were young and their names were common in the Brooklyn community. It was one of the few times Amy struggled to keep her emotions in check, and the first time she’d allowed herself to show it in front of Peralta. Well, actually, it wasn’t ‘allow herself’, per say. It was more, she’d escaped the bar to smoke a cigarette while silent tears escaped her eyes, and he was intrusive enough to follow her outside.

“Santiago.”

She shook herself out of her thoughts, mildly panicking because of the cigarette in her right hand and her tear stained cheeks. “Damn it, Peralta. You scared the crap out of me.” She sighed and met his gaze, which was looking surprisingly concerned. He caught her anyway, there was no use in hiding it anymore. “Well, aren’t you gonna say something?” She broke their silence when he didn’t speak for at least a minute.

“About what?” He casually shoved his hands in his pockets and positioned himself next to her, staring off into the distance as he leaned back against the wall.

“Duh. What you like to call my shame cigarettes.”

He shrugged. “You gotta do what you gotta do to relieve yourself from the tension, I guess.”

That answer didn’t satisfy her. “You’re being weird right now, Peralta. What’s wrong?”

“Look,” He pushed himself off of the wall and his eyes turned to look into hers. He was dangerously close to her (probably the closest they’ve ever been since being partners) but she didn’t make an effort to push him away or step back. He’d spoken a lot about forgetting to shower or wash his hair, but he was smelling surprisingly good. “This case has been hard on us all.” He continued. A little glint in his eyes gave away the fact that he enjoyed being so close to her without her pushing him away, but it flickered away as soon as he continued. He was being genuinely serious in this moment. “And you know I’m bad at emotional stuff, but I get why solving the case wasn’t as rewarding as it usually is. People… children died. We caught the bad guys, but we were too late. We both know we did a good thing by preventing future murders with this but still… it doesn’t feel right to celebrate just yet. I just wanted you to know it’s okay to be upset. There’s no need to hide it around me, I get it.”

Amy found herself staring back into his eyes, unable to figure out what she wanted to say to him. This was the first time he’s even been this considerate of her feelings and she didn’t quite know what to make of it. It was much easier to consider him an immature, unprofessional jerk, and then go home and complain about him in her Word documents. This was absolutely baffling for her.

When the silence between them lasted for a minute that became increasingly uncomfortable for Jake, he raised an eyebrow and a mischievous smirk appeared on his face. “Did I sweep you off your feet with my 100% legitimate compassion towards you?”

“What?” She blinked a few times in response to that. “No!” Her hand found its way to his leather jacket and gave him a nudge.

He took a quick step back, feigning shock. “Amy Santiago, did you just _touch me_ with your disgusting cigarette hand?”

“Oh, grow up, you big baby.” She brought the cigarette in question back to her lips.

“No! I will _not_ stand for it!” He decided to continue. “I feel _violated_.”

And then, before she could even rationally process what she was about to say (because that was the kind of influence Jake Peralta had on her), she retorted: “If that alone makes you so damn agitated, I know a lot more places I can touch you.”

His fake shock turned to a grin that could barely fit on his face. “ _Oh_ …”

The second she uttered that sentence, she realized what she had just done and her cheeks have never felt hotter. She thanked God that it was late in the evening, hopefully the night’s darkness hid at least some of her (what must be) incredibly flushed face. “You know, this is so typically you, Peralta.” She hoped he wouldn’t notice how hard she had to work to keep her voice steady. “The one time you’re actually being nice, you ruin it again by being, well, you.”

“While that would be true in many cases, I do not agree with that statement right now. You were clearly the one who brought up the fact that you want to touch me.”

“After your _bullshit_ whining about being ‘violated’!” Her words came out angrier than she’d intended.

“Whoa, cursing!” Jake held up his hands in defense, though the smile on his face remained. “I know when to back off. I really did mean well, though. It just blew up in my face like things always do.”

She averted her eyes. “Title of your sex tape.”

“Not necessarily an insult, but by all means, keep trying.”

She tossed her cigarette on the ground, not feeling the need to finish the rest of it. “I guess you did mean well. Thanks.”

“No problem. And if you still feel like you need to release some of the tension you’ve got built up inside of you, I’ll give you one free shot to touch me.”

That’s it. He was back to pushing her buttons again. She angrily turned towards him, fist clenched. He jumped a little at that, not even hiding his laughs. “I meant a punch!”

She unclenched her fist. “Really? You’d just let me punch you?”

He simply nodded. “All of my good friends get one free punch a year, whenever I feel like they need it. I like to save Rosa’s for special occasions like her birthday, Christmas, or whenever I piss her off-“

“-which must be at least twice a week.” She interrupted him.

“Yeah, so that’s why me and Rosa mix it up a little. Last time I ended up doing 100 sit ups. Anyway, Gina’s free punch is not really a punch, but a slap to the face. She once lost about 23 followers overnight so she called me at 3am. I showed up on her doorstep, expecting some kind of life threatening situation, but she just smacked me on the face. Hurt like hell, too.” He pulled a weird face as he recalled the night.

Amy crossed her arms in amusement. “What about the rest?”

“Well, the Sarge broke one of my ribs once, but you know he’d never do that intentionally. We actually tried to do a chest bump and let’s just say after that day we both agreed to never do that again. Charles gave me a black eye when he punched me in the face during an undercover op. He ended up bringing me muffins for three days straight after that, awesome. Anyway, I’m genuinely interested in knowing just how much you can do, Santiago.” He grinned back at her, jumping around with his fists up.

“So you’re really just going to let me punch you? You’re so weird.”

“That’s why you dig me.”

She rolled her eyes at that and maybe looked away to hide an embarrassed blush. (Maybe.) “Okay, first of all, I’m not going to punch you, Peralta. We’re partners and that’s just not what we do. Second of all, I don’t dig you.”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

“You’re a manchild.”

“You say ‘manchild’, I hear ‘man who’s enjoying life to the fullest and who has to sadly pay taxes on the side’.” He let his hands drop to his sides again, his grin fading just a little bit, but not enough to make her forget who she was talking to. “Real talk, though. You’re my partner in crime solving and I won’t say something witty if you feel a little shitty.” He made a little pouty face that was maybe (maybe!) a bit adorable.

“Alright, Peralta.”

“Okay.” He said and moved back towards the entrance of the bar, much to her relief. When he reached the door, he turned back towards her. “One more thing, Santiago. You can start calling me Jake every now and then.” He beamed at her with his characteristic carefree twinkle in his eyes, and she couldn’t help but return the smile as best as she could.

“Then you can occasionally call me Amy.”

He seemed to consider it for a moment. “I will refer to you as ‘Ames’.”

“You will not, Jacob Peralta.”

He grinned and opened the door, stepping back into the loud bar, though not before shouting: “Bye Ames!”

_Ames._ His voice echoed a few times in her head as she turned her gaze back to the cars passing by on the street. “Ames.” It sounded terribly endearing.

So yeah, that was the first time she’d ever experienced Jake in a mature situation. As much as he did it in his own, chaotic, Jake-style way, it did help her stop the flood of tears she expected that night. It did stop her from smoking more than that single cigarette. They never talked about it again, except Jake would of course occasionally bring up the ‘touching’ incident, but whenever she locked eyes with him during a particularly tiring case, she knew they were both thinking of it and quietly understanding.

So she knew that Jake was capable of having emotions and speaking about them. Throughout the months, she learned more about his personal life and issues. She knew about the problems he had with his father and that he had an absolute disdain for holidays.

She had a friend in him.

So when he uncovered his ‘romantic stylez’ feelings for her, it obviously shook her to the core. Thinking back, there were some moments with him that could’ve been interpreted as a ‘moment’, but she never thought of him that way. She wouldn’t allow herself to think about him this way. As much as she respected him for continuously proving her wrong by being the most considerate and respectful immature detective Jake Peralta, she still didn’t believe that he could be boyfriend material. Amy boyfriend material.

No, when she was younger she knew exactly the kind of guy she’d end up with. He’d be kind, well-mannered, he’d share her interests and he’d always open doors for her. Jake would probably open doors for her too, though sometimes he’d pretend to close it again and laugh way too loudly as she stepped back in anticipation of a door hitting her in the face. At least that’s what she thought boyfriend!Jake Peralta would be like.

“Basically, you thought you always wanted a male Amy Santiago.” Gina said, her perfectly polished pink nails tapping on her glass. “I only mean little offense, but I cannot comprehend that wish.”

Gina, Rosa and Amy all decided to go for some drinks at the bar after the case with detective Majors was wrapped up. Well, actually, it was Rosa who decided that they were going to the bar. The woman had been unusually persistent about it, and when Gina noticed, she insisted that she tagged along. “Girls night, whoo!” She’d shouted, earning a nasty glare from Rosa.

“You had Teddy. Clearly, you were wrong.” Rosa added.

Amy shrugged. “I don’t know what it was with me and Teddy. It was great at first, but after a while I guess I just missed the spark. I felt like we went from exciting first date to old married couple in weeks.”

“I know exactly what happened between you and Teddy. Amy, I’ve known you long enough to know that you, in no way, shape or form, can live up to the greatness that is my personality. When you add an Amy to an already existing Amy, all you get is-“ Gina finished her sentence by dropping herself to the table and snoring loudly.

Rosa sighed, yanking her colleague back up. “What she means to say is that we both get why you and Teddy didn’t work out. People say opposites attract for a reason.”

“Me and Teddy weren’t opposites.”

“Of course not.” Rosa said curtly. Amy briefly wondered if she wanted to plaster a ‘dumbass’ at the end of that sentence. “I’m talking about you and Jake.”

“Yes! You and Jake.” Gina damn near shouted. “I’ve been watching that poor idiot make heart eyes emoji at you for months now and frankly, he needs a new hobby.”

Amy couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed at that. Heart eyes emoji? What the hell was that supposed to mean? (She knew exactly what that was supposed to mean, but she still had difficulties thinking about it.) “Jake doesn’t- he doesn’t heart eyes- he’s not-“ She struggled to say the words.

“Trust me, Amy. I’ve been friends with him since we were little boy holding little girl’s hand, and now he’s all grown up and he wants to be big Jake holding big Amy’s hand.”

That did not help her embarrassment at all. Amy looked away, painfully aware of the fact that she was blushing like crazy. It couldn’t be! Sure, he told her that he wanted something romantic to happen between them, but that was like a year ago. He never really told her just how much he meant it. Did he mean that he wanted to date her? Or was he Ross and she Rachel? _I’m way cooler than that dinosaur dude. Admit that I’m cooler than the dinosaur dude!_ And now she was hearing his voice in her head, just fantastic.

“Look, we don’t want to harass you into making a rash decision. But Jake keeps chickening out whenever he works up the courage to talk to you. We just want to make sure that you know that he’s an option.” Rosa spoke, her firm voice dragging Amy’s eyes back to her. That woman could lead an army if she wanted to, but that was beside the point.

“Jake… an option?” Amy muttered, barely audible. She couldn’t believe it. She also couldn’t believe that those words came out of Rosa’s mouth. “I never really thought of him as boyfriend material. But he has grown up a lot since Sophia.”

“No need to speak of the enemy when there’s no reason to.” Rosa just stated, her animosity taking over. Sophia was nice enough, but her profession alone made Rosa vehemently against the woman.

"Why do you two even care? Rosa, you're always going on about how much you don't want to get involved in people's personal lives. Seems to me that you're _way_ involved in Jake's love life." Amy asked a little defensively.

"I don't have much of a choice. It's hard to avoid watching him mope around at work because he's so hung up about you."

"Yes, and I actually care about my friends." Gina added to that, holding a hand over her heart. "Mostly Jake rather than you, but you're getting there."

Amy didn't really know what to make of that. Was it a compliment? Sort of? Was she Gina's friend now?

“Now shut up and let’s drink.” Rosa ordered, rather than suggested.

The ladies spent the rest of the evening in silence, Rosa sipping her beer thinking of God knows what, Amy still with no one else but Jake on her mind, Gina typing away on her phone. When Amy took a peek at it, she noticed it was mostly Twitter. She hoped that her personal life wouldn’t make up the most of Gina’s tweets.

-

Later that night, she decided to spend the rest of her day lounging on the couch, the alcohol still warming up her insides. There was a marathon of Seinfield on. Amy didn’t quite care for sitcoms, but she wasn’t really paying attention anyway.

“’Why doesn’t your mouth work?’, title of our sex tape.” Jake’s voice was once again back in her head which almost resulted in Amy smacking her own face to make it stop. The audience’s laughter from the tv screen almost seemed ironic.

_Damn it Amy, get it together._ She cursed at herself being so damn cheesy and struggling to get through a night when there’s only one person she could think about. _This isn’t a freaking romantic comedy._

Truth it, she hated how her relationship with Jake changed ever since he went on that stupid undercover op. He had to go and tell her that he wanted something romantic to happen between them, and then he came back after six dreadful months without him, only to tell her that he didn’t mean any of it. But then, he went back on that by saying he absolutely meant it.

He was completely respectful of her relationship with Teddy, so after that, he pretty much distanced himself from her while she and Teddy progressed in their relationship (or didn’t, actually). Then there was this weird moment where Teddy called Jake out on making her ‘confused’ and she almost let it slip that she maybe did kind of like him in a romantic way. Now, if only she could’ve anticipated that Teddy would put her on the spot like that, then she would’ve prepared. She would’ve written a document that would probably be 2 pages, front and back, Amy Santiago style. She would’ve covered all the moments between her and Jake that could’ve indicated any sort of romantic progression, whether it was from her side or from his.

But she did not anticipate it, so she didn’t. Jake’s wide eyes and small smile were almost worth it.

She was so deep in thought that she almost missed the knock on her front door.

“Amy?”

His voice brought a shudder to her body, maybe it was surprise, or maybe it was because she expected him. She was thinking about him all night, he might as well be there with her.

“Are you in here?”

His voice was different than it usually was. It was softer, more nervous.

“I’m coming.” She didn’t know if he heard that and made no effort to hurry to her front door. When she reached for the handle, she couldn’t help but glance sideways at the mirror and bring a hand to her hair to tuck it behind her ear. “I have a door bell, you know.” She told him as soon as their eyes met.

He offered her a small smile and innocent shrug. His attire was quite casual, he was wearing dark jeans, a checkered shirt and his familiar brown leather jacket over it. She liked his simple style, it suited him. “It’s late. I didn’t want to bother you if you were sleeping.”

“So, you would’ve just left if I was?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not the obnoxious Jake Peralta I know and lo-“ She cut herself off before saying it, but not before the two of them both realized just what she almost said.

They both averted their gaze, Jake looking down at the floor and Amy past him, cursing at herself for what must’ve been the sixth time today.

“I can’t believe you’d just call me obnoxious. I’m hurt.” Jake said after a while, though not without adding his grin.

Amy shook her head and grinned at that, then realized they were both still standing at her doorstep. “Uh, come in, I guess.” She stepped back to let him in and closed the door behind him. When she turned to face him, she was once again looking at a version of Jake she wasn’t used to: vulnerable, not knowing what to do. He had his hands in his pockets and looked around, feeling unsure of himself. He almost looked like a lost little puppy. “Why are you here, Jake?” She didn’t mean to sound so irritated, she just wanted to help him out a little.

It did help, because Jake’s eyes found her gaze again and there was a hint of determination in them. “Oh, yeah, there was this thing I’ve been meaning to tell you all day. I kept delaying it, but I guess it’s not fair to you if you don’t know.”

Her heart started beating rapidly. She knew exactly what he was talking about, but she wouldn’t dare to speak right now, in fear of revealing just how nervous she was.

“Amy, I…” Jake’s hands were all over the place: in his pockets, together, his arms were crossed.

“Please Jake, just say it.” She grabbed a hold of his shoulder like she did after he solved the case and didn’t celebrate it, and just like then, it helped him calm himself down. At this point, it was torture for the both of them if he couldn’t even speak the words.

“I like you a lot, okay?” Jake finally said, pacing back and forth. “I told you once that I wanted something to happen between us and I told you that wasn’t a lie. When I went out with Sophia, I thought I was over it, I thought it was in the past. But it’s not. I think about you a lot more than should be considered normal.” He stopped in his tracks. “I think about how awesome it would be to be able to take you out on a date. I think about how much it sucks that I’m not Teddy. I know you’re not with him right now, but if I was Teddy, I would’ve made you so happy that we never would’ve broken up.” At this point, Jake was just rambling, not giving her a chance to speak. “I just thought you should know. I know you have a no cops rule when it comes to dating, and I respect that.”

“Well, I appreciate the fact that you do.” This was the only verbal response she could offer him right now.

“Although, I do recall me telling you about the fact that certain rules were meant to be broken.” He jokingly added with a half-smile, which earned him a smack to the chest. “Anyway, like I said: just came over to tell you that.” He moved past her, trying to brush over the moment like he did a year ago, though this time, Amy did manage to speak.

“Where are you going?”

“Home. I said what I came here to say.” Jake said matter-of-factly, though he clearly suppressed the urge to tease her about why she could possibly want him to stay.

“It’s almost midnight, Jake. I’m not going to let you go out now.”

He winked at her and grabbed the door handle. “I’m a grown man and a brilliant detective, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Just crash on my couch tonight, Jake. Would it sound more appealing to you if I told you I have a copy of the extended cut of Die Hard?”

In total Jake fashion, he instantly let go of the handle, stepping back at her with sheer amazement all over his face. “You got Die Hard?”

“You love that movie. I wanted to see what all the fuss is about. Plus, if I was going to buy the DVD, I wanted to buy the real deal.” She shrugged it off like it was nothing, but he couldn’t resist grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her.

“Die Hard is only the best movie ever! How dare you take advantage of my weaknesses like that, you know I’ll stay here forever now.”

She couldn’t help it, his excitement rubbed off on her a little and she beamed back at him. She enjoyed seeing him like this, she missed it. “Just go get the DVD. It’s in the cabinet in the living room. I’ll grab something to eat and join you in a sec.”

He didn’t need to be told twice and rushed off to the living room while she turned on her heel and went to the kitchen. This was the first time she intentionally invited Jake to stay the night at her place, and she was feeling surprisingly calm about it. In fact, she was actually looking forward to spend a night with him just watching a movie.

“ _Ames_ , come on!”

His impatient voice came from the living room and Amy couldn’t believe how much it didn’t bother her that he called her that, and as she grabbed a bag of nuts and a bowl, she wondered just where the night would take them.


End file.
